NEHIMSS 2019: teaching Patient-Clinician Partnership with role play – and a song

Last month I once again had the pleasure of sharing the stage with Dr. Danny Sands, my PCP and co-author of Let Patients Help, this time at the New England HIMSS conference. Sharing our experiences and spreading how the doctor/patient partnership truly creates a prescription neither one of us can do alone. Not every speech earns a standing ovation from an appreciative audience, but this one did!

Chapter member (and S4PM member) Pat Rioux arranged to have a terrific video company, Slickman Media, produce and edit a superb multi-camera video of our session, from introduction to song (“Doctor, Doctor, Gimme The News”) to standing ovation and Q&A.

The terrific audience turnout and feedback we received underscores that our message is as strong as ever: Let Patients Help. One potent blogger in attendance was Sue Schade, recently named one of the Most Powerful Women in Healthcare IT for 2019 by Health Data Management. I knew her from her social media presence but we’d never met. She captured our message in a heartfelt blog post:

Their session demonstrated the power of storytelling at its best. Now I understand why Dave is so passionate about patient engagement. …

They covered communications (email, texting), patients doing their own online research and sharing information with their physician, timely access to results on a patient portal, and disease specific online support groups.

More coverage on Healthcare IT Today came from the amazing @Colin_Hung, co-founder of the weekly HCLDR (healthcare leaders) tweetchat. In a great article he captured the talk:

DeBronkart and Dr. Sands used the power of story-telling to paint a crystal clear picture of true patient-physician partnership.

In a series of vignettes, they acted out different aspects of a patient encounter in two parts. First, they would act out the typical interaction between a paternalistic physician and an e-patient (someone who is actively engaged in their care and using digital means to stay on top of their condition). Then they would act out how that same interaction might happen when the physician and e-patient are working together as partners.

The contrast was both humorous and enlightening.

(He also whipped out his phone as the song started and captured all but the first few seconds from the balcony. :-) It’s at the end of his post.)

Hire us for your event.

We’ve done versions of this teach-and-entertain production nearly a half dozen times now. Our first song was a parody of Sonny & Cher, “I Got You Dave”; this one was “Doctor, Doctor [Bad case of e-patient blues]”, and it’s rumored that for the right price we’ll come up with a custom version of whatever song suits your message. See the contact page to get in touch.

And thanks again to New England HIMSS, Pat Rioux, and Gary Slickman (email) for the great event and video.